Zip Lining and the end of day 2!

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to go for a run on the beach and was surprisingly not tired.  When we got to the beach, I was a little bit surprised that there were already so many people there. There were locals with their families going for a walk and others, working out like we were about to.  All of them sort of looked excited simply that it was the start of a new day.  I don't really know why that was so interesting to me.  Maybe it's because it has to do with Pura Vida.  After the run, we all went surfing.  It was pretty sweet and everybody did pretty well. The surf school gave us all t-shirts, and one thing I noticed was that the text on the shirt said, "Relax... No stress".  This struck me because that was exactly how I was feeling.  It's like being at la playa hanging with everybody took away any stress I had.  After surfing, we had an awesome lunch, then the group split into two, one going zip lining and the other walking around Samara.  I was the first group to go zip lining and it was awesome.  We saw howler monkeys, iguanas, and all other plant and animal life; seeing all of this while flying through the jungle.  Our guides Manu and Freddy had a bit of a sense of humor.  At the end of the zip lining trip, we had to rappel down to the ground.  Kristin was up first and by the way Manu was giving her instructions and attaching her harness to the rope, she was expecting a slow descent.  Manu and Freddy had something else in mind as she free-fell, being caught by Freddy just before she hit the ground.  They proceeded to do this with everyone in the group, each time, scaring the person rappelling.  Now we are going to have some pizza by the pool and chill out.  I'm looking forward to getting some sleep for an awesome day tomorrow. 

-Brandon Boccellari

Today was our first official day in Samara, Costa Rica. Not only was I excited to go to the beach, take some surfing lessons, and go zip lining, but I was ready to take it all in because I knew we had hard work ahead of us. Even though Kristin woke Nyia and I up at 6:45 due to the people on the trip going for a run, it gave us some time to wake up and talk about what was coming that day. Once everyone got back from the run, we all headed to the beach. We were spilt into two groups of six where every two people had an instructor. I was in the second group so Kristin, Ms. Hay and I got some sun and swam in the BEAUTIFUL ocean. About an hour and a half passed and it was our group two's time to surf. I was nervous but nonetheless excited. The instructor that Kristin and I had was Didirad. He was obviously a native and surfed...alot. There was one time during the lesson in which I laid my head on my board and he said to me, "Carla, you sleep during the night. Now, we surf that's what I do surf, and then I sleep." That sounds like a pretty good life to me. Surfing, i thought, was going to be alot harder than it actually was. I mean, I can't do any "gnarly" tricks or anything, but I actually rode a couple of waves in! Everyone had so much fun surfing and we can't wait to take some more lessons later on this week. Now, onto walking into the town of Samara and zip- lining through the jungle. One group went to zip- lining first while the second went to get a tour of the town. I was in the group that went to town first so we walked in, got a couple of really good fuitas con helado (fruit with ice cream) and started to look at the little stands with knick knacks and jewelry. We also stopped at another place and got some more ice cream or mango drinks. We spent about 2 hours in town and once we got back, the other group was back from zip- lining and it was our turn. We drove to the Canopy Trails place and our instructor, "Yasha" and his friend "Freddy" were taking us on the zip-lines. Their company called "Wing Nuts" was started by Yasha, Freddy, and his brother, they even built the zip-lines themselves! After some people zip- lined from the first podium, Freddy screamed over and told Yasha there was a swarm of bees so me, Kibby, Sophia, and Lindsay had to trek through the jungle to the third platform. The rest of the zip-lining was amazing and gorgeous. The obnoxious Howler Monkeys added a nice touch to it as well. Well, we just ate pizza and are ready to relax. Tomorrow is another day and I know everyone is really psyched. 

- Carly Ilvento